Hey there,
First time Posting.
I’d like to share my story in hopes that someone might have had a similar experience to mine and hopefully share advice on whether there is a next step in this situation.
I recently got hired at a coffee roasting facility in California the last week of August and Friday 10/27 will be my last.
let me set the stage with the issue. The President of the company, let’s call him baldy, is somewhat illiterate in empathy. Baldy also doesn’t like hearing the truth so baldy usually rebuts any criticisms made, even if baldy asked for the critique.
Baldy and his partner are delusional thinking that they had their coffees graded by a 3rd party coffee grader giving them 91 points for 3 of their coffee offerings. The coffees don’t even show up in the 3rd party database. So first red flag was the lack of integrity.
POSSIBLE HAZING?
So my first day as a production roaster I was told to clean pipes by baldy.
There is a proper way of clearing build up from the pipes and an unnecessarily laborious way. The proper way involves soaking the pipes in water then scraping away the now soft buildup. The improper way that baldy chose to apply to me was to forego the water and to scrape it with a paint scraper dry until bare metal is seen. Some of the buildup can be 1inch thick and need hammering to even chip it away.
In 100+ F conditions I spent hours chipping away at these pipes until I was exhausted. Whilst the main roaster was explaining to me that he and others before him had to go through that too. then teaching me the proper way.
During the first few weeks of working there exhaustion was regular I could only
Sleep as soon as I came home. One day I cut my finger badly enough that a sliver of my bone was chipped off which made the cut not heal properly for a whole month. It has been seen by a doctor through workers comp and treated which is how I know there was a piece of bone chipped off.
Baldy then wanted a 1 to 1 meeting. Referring to me as the FNG “fucking new guy” during the meeting. He proceeds to be dismissive of my experience as a coffee professional when he asks me about ways to improve the coffee program.
ENCOUNTER W HR
About a month in I fill in the hr check in for how work is going. And let them know the experience I’ve had with baldy. HR sets an appointment to call with me and I let them know my grievances about the hazing and baldys unusual way of conversing.
Weeks go by and there is no mention of the hazing incident to me nor was there any communication with my manager about this issue.
After a machine failure last week in which a part was needed to be replaced, an issue that was brought up to baldy since September, baldy showed us his true colors bringing in hr to babysit and aide while baldy and his wife go on a vacation. HR began superseding my manager(operations manager) and taking away his responsibilities. Something that baldy specifically told me that this company does not do. This is the 3rd offense in my book which led me to sending my letter of resignation.
In efforts to see to it that the next employee that takes my place doesn’t experience this issue, I ask for an update with HR about solutions for the hazing, they replied with this,
“we have been trying to schedule a meeting with you, your manager and the HR team onsite to discuss this. Unfortunately, with people out on personal leave and emergency situations like the roaster breaking down, the meeting has been scheduled and rescheduled multiple times. The meeting was going to take place next week after baldys wife(head of hr) is back in the office. Given that your last day is Friday 10/27, this meeting will no longer be able to take place. “
I asked my manager about whether they tried to involve him in any meeting about this topic and he has not heard a single thing about it.
There is one more email from the head of hr (baldys wife) that goes into how I have misinterpreted a crucial aspect of the training process. To which I replied with a detailed outline of what was done by baldy to make this more laborious than necessary.
Now they have gone silent and the entire HR team (2 people) is on “vacation” conveniently until my last day at work.
Does this make a case for hazing?